Over the last few months a series of articles on how to create amazing online experiences was written and published by Greg Randall.
Recently an article from the NN Group has come out further supporting this series and in particular Principle #5 on having the "Data do the Decision Making" (click here to read Greg Randall's article on data and how it contributes to creating amazing online experiences).
The NN Group article specifically covers the topic of the insight retailers can gain when analysing customer support data and interviewing employees on the front line.
NN Group conducted a "diary study" where they asked people to document their experiences once completed. The study found the following....
When consumers tried to complete a medium complex task (such as purchasing garments) 64% of these people had to reach out to the brand and make contact with an employee for help.
The four main reasons for consumers making contact were:
#1 "Service problems". A consumer's expectation was not met. A product arrived broken or the wrong size arrived. Or the site made promises which did not happen such as a coupon code being emailed to the consumer's inbox.
#2 "Roadblocks". These occur when users cannot complete a task on their touchpoint (or device) of choice for various reasons (they encountered errors) and must switch to a different touchpoint to complete their task.
Consumers call because they think if the "roadblock" is happening on one digital device the same will happen on another.
#3 "Missing or confusing information". Many consumers in this study had information needs not met at specific points in their journey because the site content was ambiguous or absent.
#4 "Perception of complexity". Consumers preferred to complete tasks by working one-on-one with an employee because they felt that the task was too complex for the digital channels available.
The most common of the four was "missing or confusing information".
Site analytics tools are critical but it only tells one side of the story.
The process of analysing customer support data and interviewing frontline employees not only identifies issues it drives and brings focus to a retailer's content strategy.
When a "UX expert" comes to you and says they will conduct a consumer panel in a lab setting environment to find out what your customer wants, at that moment you know they are not a "UX expert". It' doesn't work.
A consumer panel trying to fabricate true buying intent, consumer pain points and contextual opinions in a lab setting will never uncover the information required to build customer centric experiences.
Read the full article from NN Group by clicking on the link below:
https://www.nngroup.com/articles/customer-service-omnichannel-ux/
This article was as tagged as Customer Service